Faster Internet speeds coming to the Valley

PHOENIX — Valley businesses could soon see a big boost in Internet speeds.

Communications company CenturyLink is offering Phoenix business owners data speeds as fast as one gigabit per second.

“We’ve been working on this for quite some period of time,” explained CenturyLink’s Ken McMahon, vice president and general manager for the Phoenix market. “We’ve been waiting to launch this with services that utilize those type of speeds.”

McMahon said Phoenix is one of only 16 cities to have the new technology available.

“We’ve launched new products in [the Phoenix] market that require these types of speeds or enable these types of speeds and converge your data, your Internet and your voice into one bundle,” he said.

Faster speeds, McMahon said, will also help small businesses stay up-to-date with new technology.

“We feel that it enables businesses to start to move their IT infrastructure into the cloud,” he said.

McMahon said the company’s gigabit fiber service will be available in Phoenix starting Aug. 18. The company also plans to launch the new service in Tucson the same day.